Feeding straights to a competition horse

Topaz Tiger

Topaz Tiger

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Hi guys, am thinking about changing my feed from Top Spec to straights. I have been happy with TS, but am slightly concerned about the slightly more questional ingredients ie wheatfeed or oatfeed byproducts (can't remember exactly-not got a bag to hand)
I fed simple systems before, but seems to have to feed an awful lot, plus not sure there was enough vits/mins etc for a hardworking horse. TS does seem to have put a lot of research into what a hardworking horse needs esp as our pastures do not necessarily provide all they need. Plus she was eating so much SS she wasn't eating much haylage.
My concern is whether I can make sure she gets all the nutrients she needed for her work, travelling etc. She is a delicate creature at the best of times, so need to be careful.... ;)
As you can see I'm sitting on the fence a bit on this one, can I be sure a can provide what she needs, or just feed TS and close my eyes to the other stuff in it.
Anyone got any thoughts experiences etc?
 
Is it the TS comprehensive balancer? I would recommend speaking to someone at TS they are really helpful, ive sent them a few emails as i feed TS too and they always get back to me. Would be interested in their response if you do speak to them.
 
Yes it is. I also feed the TS cool condition nuts and the fibre cubes. I saw a couple of comments on a forum about horses being footy or sharp on it and it got me thinking. Mine was footy last year, despite being extremely careful-but the ground was very hard and is sharp at the moment on the CC cubes, but it is the end of the winter and they can get a bit like that at this time of year. So am open minded really, would be interested to hear of anyone competing reasonably seriously on just straights and what they're feeding.
 
ABE said:
Is it the TS comprehensive balancer? I would recommend speaking to someone at TS they are really helpful, ive sent them a few emails as i feed TS too and they always get back to me. Would be interested in their response if you do speak to them.
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Really, I had a less than great experience and it's rather put me off them. :o

The rep I dealt with in person at my local feedstore was completely unable to tell me the break down of one of their products (topchop lite) and she had to get back to me with an email which made it clear she'd had to ask someone else. Why can't they put this stuff on the bag/website - surely it's quite reasonable for us as customers to want to know what we are paying for/feeding our horses?!

Then when I then emailed her again asking for ingredients in another of their products (cool and conditioning cubes) despite me specifying that I was asking because my horse is alfalfa intollerant then she still didn't tell me what was in them. Instead she said about me phoning to discuss my 'issues' with him and her coming to weigh him etc etc. She was clearly a sales rep instead of a nutritionalist though. ;) Instead I went and bought miconised linseed and full fat soya flakes separately from a more helpful feed company.

The whole experience has put me off. Think I shall be switching to Pure feeds balancer when my bins of topspec balancer run out.
 
I would recommend a TS nutristionist on their helpline rather than a feed store rep :)

I forgot to mention i feed straights-barley along with my TS for extra condition in the winter and it provides enough energy in the eventing season. All the horses at our yard are on straights (oats/Barley) and couple of them compete to a decent level and look very well on it.

Feeding is mind boggling these days, so many options and every bag/company sells a good story.
 
Thanks ABE that's interesting, I suppose I could carry on with the TS balancer and then rather than feeding their CC cubes or fibre nuts, add in naked oats and/or linseed as needed.
Your right every feed company will of course tell you theirs is best, hence I was interested to hear people's views/experiences on here..... :)
 
Thanks for that kirstykate, this sums up quite nicely all the reasons that I have shied away from feeding straights, it just seems incredibly complicated and without doing loads of research, there seems a good chance my horses will end up with not having a balanced diet...... :(
 
What age/size/weight/temperament/breeding is your horse and what level work is he/she doing? (Level of competition plus hours per day schooling etc)
 
gunnergundog said:
What age/size/weight/temperament/breeding is your horse and what level work is he/she doing? (Level of competition plus hours per day schooling etc)
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Hi gunnergundog, she is a 16hh ISH, 12 years old, prob about 550kg, forward going/sharp, but not stressy. She is a good doer.
I work her for 45 mins to 1 hour plus 6 days a week, mix of schooling/hacking and jumping one day a week.
We are working at novice/elementary level, jumping 105-115cms and aiming to do a couple of BE100 in April and then step up to Novice.
We had a very unsuccessful season last year with a host of niggling injuries, so really need to make sure we have all bases covered this year.
We have had a fair easy winter competition wise, she is a good weight, plenty of energy, so we are now looking to step up the competing to get ready for our first event.
Daily in total she currently gets, TS comp balancer, previously 1 scoop of TS cool condition cubes, which I've just reduced to 1/2 CC and 1/2 fibre cubes as she's looking a bit too well, plus 1 1/2 scoops of unmollased soaked sugar beet, plus msm and litovet rosehips, plus some sliced carrots. There is little grass in the field, but she has access to ad lib meadow type haylage 24/7.
Any thoughts would be much appreciated.
TT :D
 
Tbh, I wouldn't call TS 'balancer' balanced at all. What's it balanced to? Not your average British pasture, that's for sure! Certainly wouldn't feed it to a barefoot horse (you mentioned yours has been footy; I assume he's unshod?)
 
I have never had any problems with topspec, and the feed helpline is good.

Only thing I would be concerned about feeding straights to a comp horse is if they are free of all the banned substances.
 
Nocturnal said:
Tbh, I wouldn't call TS 'balancer' balanced at all. What's it balanced to? Not your average British pasture, that's for sure! Certainly wouldn't feed it to a barefoot horse (you mentioned yours has been footy; I assume he's unshod?)
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Hi, she's shod, but she did really feel the hard ground last spring, so as I said, quite possibly completely unconnected to TP.
Maybe TP isn't perfect, but how confident can I be that I could do better myself and is there anyone out there that feels they have.....?
Hence the posted thread...... :o
 
I don't feed pre-mixed feeds anymore, although I can admit that some are fabulous, there are others that are a bit dubious about the exact contents. I worked in a feed and produce store, and was privvy to one company's rather 'dirty' tactics as they attempted to phase out one product in order to implement another. I had been feeding this rice based feed for YEARS, and they were attempting to replace it with a wheat (bran) based feed (this was cheaper at the time), so gradually reduced the amount of rice brand for wheat bran in what was the current product. I assumed this was to reduce any unusual behaviour in horses when it came time for owners to switch to the new product, as they had basically been eating the same thing for months! Only problem was my horse had some kind of intolerance to wheat, so gradually became very hot and un-reasonable.

But I digress...

I've been feeding for years, a base mix of lucerne chaff (could be replaced with lucerne hay), whole oats and equilibrium mineral mix. Oats have the lowest energy of all grain, and are full of B group vitamins and tryptophan, which is commonly found in commercial calming pasts, making them act like a 'nervine'; in the correct doses it can calm your horse! Plus they have a 90% digestion rate, compared to 30% for other grains, making them great value, as you can feed less. They are however slightly unbalanced as far as the cal/phos ratio, hence why I feed lucernce chaff to increase the calcium. I've fed this to the very hot horse mentioned above, he definitely became more level headed! And also to other TB's, including my current one off the track.

So I find this a fabulous base to go from, I can add extra things like Rice bran oil, or barley to increase weight/energy if a horse needs it. :o Plus it's cheap as chips! I've saved a fortune since swapping from pre-mixes.
 
Lyle said:
I don't feed pre-mixed feeds anymore, although I can admit that some are fabulous, there are others that are a bit dubious about the exact contents. I worked in a feed and produce store, and was privvy to one company's rather 'dirty' tactics as they attempted to phase out one product in order to implement another. I had been feeding this rice based feed for YEARS, and they were attempting to replace it with a wheat (bran) based feed (this was cheaper at the time), so gradually reduced the amount of rice brand for wheat bran in what was the current product. I assumed this was to reduce any unusual behaviour in horses when it came time for owners to switch to the new product, as they had basically been eating the same thing for months! Only problem was my horse had some kind of intolerance to wheat, so gradually became very hot and un-reasonable.

But I digress...

I've been feeding for years, a base mix of lucerne chaff (could be replaced with lucerne hay), whole oats and equilibrium mineral mix. Oats have the lowest energy of all grain, and are full of B group vitamins and tryptophan, which is commonly found in commercial calming pasts, making them act like a 'nervine'; in the correct doses it can calm your horse! Plus they have a 90% digestion rate, compared to 30% for other grains, making them great value, as you can feed less. They are however slightly unbalanced as far as the cal/phos ratio, hence why I feed lucernce chaff to increase the calcium. I've fed this to the very hot horse mentioned above, he definitely became more level headed! And also to other TB's, including my current one off the track.

So I find this a fabulous base to go from, I can add extra things like Rice bran oil, or barley to increase weight/energy if a horse needs it. :o Plus it's cheap as chips! I've saved a fortune since swapping from pre-mixes.
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Hi Lyle, thanks for your thoughts, I did think of Equilibra, (presume thats what you mean by equilibrium?) as I like the idea of the naked oats that they suggest to feed with it, but is it not a balancer like all the others...? Apologies if you didnt mean Equilibra. Good thought about the Lucerne chaff. Doubt my horse would need much more than that, but presume micronised linseed (don't know anything about rice bran oil) to be another good thing to add in, assuming it doesnt create a further inbalance...... Arrrgh!
How would I figure out the ratio of oats to Lucerne to make sure it was balanced?
Just realised you don't mean Equilibra at all!
Guess the ext question is are there any good vit/min supplements out there..... Actually don't TS do one....... ;)
 
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I know this is in CR because it relates to competition horses but there have been quite a few threads in NL relating to balancers/minerals/feeding straights etc. you might find them useful. Not that I am an expert but there were some obviously well read posters.
 
Dont all shout at me but in the olden days when we fed bran, oats, molassed sugar beet and boiled linseed if you were lucky, dont remember all the horses dropping dead of vitamin/mineral deficiencies :confused::cool:
 
smiggy said:
Dont all shout at me but in the olden days when we fed bran, oats, molassed sugar beet and boiled linseed if you were lucky, dont remember all the horses dropping dead of vitamin/mineral deficiencies :confused::cool:
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I know smiggy, it has occurred to me that I don't eat a balancer or a Vit/Min supplement and I'm not deficient either.......:p maybe we just over complicate things, or the feed companies would like us to think it is too complicated for us to deal with.......
 
Right, I realise I am not a pro and therefore don't really have a right to give advice in CR, but here goes!

That H&H article is a load of (quite frankly, patronising) balls written by a feed company to frighten people away from straights. As Lyle posted above, of all the grains, oats are the best suited to horses. The calcium/phospherous ratio can be balanced by feeding oats with sugar beet and/or alfalfa as both are good sources of calcium, or you could add limestone flour. You could also add a broad spectrum vit and min supplement to your straights (isn't this what feed companies recommend themselves if you are not feeding the recommended amount of compund feed?) or something like Pink Powder. You can also add salt and /or electrolytes when you need them so your straights can have everything a horse needs added.

You cannot perfectly balance your horse's diet without having your forage/grazing analised, so as Nocturnal said, what, exactly are balancers balanced to?

I feed mine sugar beet, oats, micronised linseed, brewer's yeast and calmag. I feed by eye, losing weight, I up the feed, putting on, I cut it back. He looks fab, shiny coat, good feet, but, is he a comp horse?, No, so, I will tell you what I fed when I was hunting hard and competing regularly - oats, sugar beet, alfa A, veggie oil, Equivite and salt/electrolytes when needed. The horse looked fab, lovely shine to his coat, excellent feet, more than enough energy and stamina and never a day sick or sorry.
 
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Cloball said:
I know this is in CR because it relates to competition horses but there have been quite a few threads in NL relating to balancers/minerals/feeding straights etc. you might find them useful. Not that I am an expert but there were some obviously well read posters.
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Thanks Cloball, will have a look, i put it in here as just thought that the lifestyle we make our competition horses lead would probably mean that they need different support to perhaps some other horses, that's not to say other horses, who don't compete, wouldn't also need a high/different level of support....... :D
 
Thank God for that!

Would just like to add that I feed micronised linseed instead of veggie oil now, back when I was hunting regularly I was not aware that micronised linseed was available (it might not even have been at the time).
 
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